Published 1:00 am, Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The issue is the most high profile among several new laws, or sections of laws, that go into effect on New Year's Day.

While Gov.
M. Jodi Rell
opposed the legislation last year as too expensive for businesses, majority
Democrats
and a handful of Republicans overrode her veto June 23.

The minimum hourly wage will rise to $8.25 on Jan. 1, 2010.

John Olsen
, president of the state AFL-CIO, said the higher wages are a simple matter of fairness for the lowest-paid workers in a state with high median incomes and a soaring cost of living.

"Inflation is five or six percent, energy costs are up, and traditionally minimum-wage workers have continued to lose purchasing power," Olsen said in a phone interview.

"It's a moral issue, and it is as if people have lost sight of the fact that people who work 40 hours a week should be able to provide themselves with food, shelter, to support families. We should not have the wealth sucked away through manipulation and corruption, while the average workers have to scramble just to survive."

Opponents of the bill last year said it would force businesses to lay off employees, many of whom are teenagers who aren't supporting families.

"A large percentage of minimum-wage workers are not in high school," Olsen said, adding that the nation's economic dependence on China for imports and investment makes him wonder why the U.S. fought Communism during the Korean War in the early 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s.

"There's no concern about the Chinese expansion now," said the union leader. "People think markets and capital are something to be worshipped, but it's our democracy and freedom that we should worship."

He said business should be serving the people of this nation, not corporate bottom lines.

"I have no problem with capital and markets as tools," he said. "But there's something about people who go out and work every day to build our nation that should be celebrated. Now everybody wants to make a quick buck and suck the money out."

Other new laws taking effect Thursday include sections of last year's so-called clean-contracting standards legislation; a construction-safety bill; a bill on motor vehicle repairs; and changes to insurance statutes.

Also going into effect is a law requiring insurance coverage for autism therapies.

The law requires health insurance companies in the state to cover physical, speech and occupational therapies for autism spectrum disorders if their policies cover the same treatments for other conditions.

"It is essential that we open more doors to treatment as soon as possible," Rell said in a press release Wednesday. "This law offers hope to families living with a condition that experts say is treatable with early diagnosis."